The Steelers today released starting guard Kendall Simmons, making him an unrestricted free agent.

Simmons had an Achilles tendon torn in the fourth game of last season and was placed on injured reserve and did not play again.

He was thief first-round draft choice in 2002 and became their starting right guard as a rookie. He remained their starter except when he spent 2004 on injured reserve and until his injury last season.

They also released linebacker Mike Humpal, a sixth-round draft choice last year. Humpal was on injured reserve with a neck injury.

$3.1M savings.. That should make the O-Line discussions fun... Saturday in our future?

WOW. Shocked by this. Although I wasn't thrilled with the idea of Simmons returning, he at least would provide depth (as would Marvel, and he's clearly gone as well).

Is there any doubt now that we are taking multiple OL in the first 3 rounds? Or were we just freeing up cap space to sing Essex to a whopper deal?

I'm not a fan of the idea of singing Saturday...he's just too old. Are there any other G/C out there that we might target?

Logged

"Dreith said I hit Sipe too hard. I hit him as hard as I could. Brian has a chance to go out of bounds and he decides not to. He knows I'm going to hit him. And I do. History."- - - Jack Lambert, after referee Ben Dreith ejected him from a game for knocking out Browns QB Brian Sipe.